U.S. trading platform Robinhood will acquire Canada’s WonderFi Technologies Inc. for $250 million (CAD), the latest cryptocurrency company to be acquired in its cross-border expansion efforts.
Robinhood has agreed to purchase all issued and outstanding common shares of the owner and operator of digital asset trading platforms for $0.36 CAD apiece in an all-cash deal, which is a 41 percent premium on the closing price of the shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange the day before the announcement. WonderFi’s 115-person team will join Robinhood Crypto’s Canadian workforce at its Toronto office, where it employs 140 people.
The deal is subject to regulatory approval but is expected to close during the second half of the year, at which point WonderFi will delist from the TSX. WonderFi will continue to operate its products post-acquisition. It currently has over 1.7 million registered users and $2.1 billion in client assets under custody, owns crypto payments firm SmartPay, and has a stake in crypto custodian Tetra Trust.
The deal has generally been met with favourable reactions. If approved, Robinhood will become a direct competitor with Wealthsimple, which launched its cryptocurrency offering in 2020 and has over $73 billion CAD in assets under management and three million clients. By comparison, Robinhood has $187 billion USD in assets under custody.
